Surgical devices directed to infusion and draining of fluids to and from a patient's body has been known for many years.
Initially, a catheter was developed known as the Foley catheter which incorporated a balloon-tipped retention urinary catheter. In this system, a balloon was provided with a drainage port as well as an infusion port. A proximal end of the catheter was provided and a side port was incorporated for inflation of the balloon. The balloon was inflated through some type of syringe which allowed passage of liquid through the side port. In this manner, the catheter was retained within a body cavity during a procedure. Since the Foley catheter was introduced, numerous types of catheter systems have been developed which permit retention of the catheter within the body cavity of a patient.
One of the important problems associated with catheters which are inserted into body cavities and retained therein during a procedure is the complexity of maintaining the retaining mechanism within the body cavity in a releasably locked condition.
A need has been developed to reduce the overall diameter of a catheter tubular member while maintaining a continuous flow passageway for either draining or infusion of liquids to and from the body cavity.
Complex mechanisms have been tried for releasably locking the retaining mechanism within the body cavity, however, such mechanisms generally are complex to operate and further (most importantly) take a large amount of manipulation which results in an extended time interval for the locking/unlocking procedure of the retaining mechanism. Such extended times are important especially when a patient is undergoing a procedure.
Subsequent to a catheter being positioned within the body cavity of a patient, the activation mechanism remains external to the patient's own body. A caregiver or other medical personnel manipulates the activation mechanism to transition the device between open and closed positions which correspond to the wings being in an extended position and in a flush position with respect to a flexible tubular member portion of the catheter.
Patients often will displace this portion of the catheter and such contact may cause the catheter to be unintentionally transitioned from the open to the closed position. This condition is especially true in cases where patients are catheterized but remain mobile.
Therefore, it is important for catheters to be equipped with a locking mechanism to protect against unintended transitioning while providing a locking mechanism which is easily manipulatable and reduces the time required for the caregiver to extend the retaining mechanism into the open position or the closed position.
Such locking mechanisms are important since it is critical that they be designed for use with the type of improved retaining mechanism as is herein described so that if the catheter is locked into its open position and subsequently removed from the patient's body cavity, the flexibility of the retaining mechanism will minimize tearing, rupturing, bleeding, and/or scarring to the lining of the patient's body cavity.